Robert Redford, the Hollywood acting legend of the 1970s who became an Oscar-winning director, liberal activist and champion of independent cinema, has died at the age of 89.<\/p>\n
Redford died \u201cat his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah \u2014 the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved,\u201d publicist Cindi Berger said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No cause of death was provided.<\/p>\n
After rising to stardom in the 1960s, Redford was one of the biggest stars of the ‘1970s with such films as The Candidate, All the President’s Men and The Way We Were, capping that decade with the best director Oscar for 1980’s Ordinary People, which also won best picture in 1980.<\/p>\n
His roles ranged from Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward to a mountain man in Jeremiah Johnson to a double agent in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and his co-stars included Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise.<\/p>\n
He is perhaps best known, however, for starring alongside fellow activist Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.<\/p>\n
The film, in which Redford portrayed a wily outlaw, was a box-office smash which would later inspire the name of the Sundance Institute and Sundance Film Festival \u2014 both of which were founded by Redford.<\/p>\n
He founded Sundance as he watched Hollywood grow more cautious and controlling through the 1970s, expressing a desire to recapture the creative spirit of the early part of the decade.<\/p>\n
Sundance was created to nurture new talent away from the pressures of Hollywood, the institute providing a training ground and the festival, based in Park City, Utah, where Redford had purchased land with the initial hope of opening a ski resort.<\/p>\n
Instead, Park City became a place of discovery for such previously unknown filmmakers as Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, Paul Thomas Anderson and Darren Aronofsky.<\/p>\n
“For me, the word to be underscored is ‘independence,'” Redford told the Associated Press in 2018.<\/p>\n
“I’ve always believed in that word. That’s what led to me eventually wanting to create a category that supported independent artists who weren’t given a chance to be heard.”<\/p>\n
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